'Aquino govt will need Nat'l Environment Plan'--WED Assembly

PRESS RELEASE June 6, 2010

‘AQUINO GOVT WILL NEED A NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT WORKPLAN’

......– World Environment Day Annual Assembly

The incoming government of President-apparent Benigno C. Aquino III will need to have a clear and comprehensive National Environment Plan to institute substantial changes in the directions and workstyle of its own Dept. of Environment and Natural Respources, according to the first of nine resolutions of the Eighth Annual Assem­bly of the UN-convened World Environment Day-Philippines (WED-Phils.) Net­work held yesterday at the Environment Studies Institute of Miriam College in Quezon City. Yesterday was observed throughout the world as World Environment Day, as mandated by a United Nations resolution way back in 1972.
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. Attended by dozens of delegates from big and small member-groups and fraternal organizations of the decade-old WED-Philippines, notably the Green Convergence for Safe Food, Healthy Environment and Sustainable Economy (Graan Convergence) and Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP), the Assembly passed this resolution as presented and explained by Dr. Ernesto R. Gonzales, a noted ecological economist, who said “Noynoy” Aquino had campaigned and won on the platform of real change, and his government now expected and his government is now mandated to effectively address the ills that have pervaded the earlier levels of performance of DENR that the Philippine environment movement has found to be dismaying. “This is at least as important as, if not more crucial than, the incoming President’s choice of whom to appoint as DENR secret­ary," he emphasized.
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. Answering questions from other assembly participants, Dr. Gonzales said a National Environment Plan is not meant to replace the 1992 document Philippine Agenda 21. “Far from it, the NEP would give teeth to PA21 as Republic Acts are passed to ensure and strengthen the implementation of Constitutional provisions. After passing the resolution, the Assembly created a committee to work on a draft plan based on consultations, and to communicate closely with Malacañang to express and explain the spirit of the resolution and report on the progress of the work done on it. The Assembly delegates appointed him to chair this committee.
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. Other resolutions pertained to a consolidation of approaches for the “Green movement” to address various issues; the integration of its advocacy efforts with “Greenterprise” work that would make available environment-friendly products for massive shifts to “green lifestyles” that would also give added income to active environmentalists; the affirmation of families and local communities as vital constituencies of the nationwide environmental movement; and the more vigorous promotion of basic ethics for the entire effort, notably the “Culture of Truth,” “Culture of Assetion” and the “Culture of synergetic teamwork,” dubbed “Balik-Bayanihan para sa Kalikasan.”
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. Other organizations represented at yesterday’s Assembly included SaninbLakas ng mga Aktibong Lingkod ng Inang Kalikasan (SALIKA), Environ­ment Broadcast Circle (EBC), Consumer Rights for Safe Food (CRSF), Green Pilipinas; “Green Community Action for the Restoration of the Environment (Green Care), Miriam PEACE, and Pateros River Basin Organization (PatRiBorg). WED-Phils. has been led by co-chairpersons emeritus Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn and SanibLakas lead founder Ed Aurelio C. Reyes.
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. In partnership with the concerned LGUs. This network held earlier annual assemblies in the cities of Princesa, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Tagbilaran, Davao and Batangas, and will be doing the same in a Mindanao city next year.
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. WED-Phils. had launched last May a WED-commemorative project covering areas in the Philippines and abroad, centered on a “New Seed” declaration that now has versions in four Philippine languages and nine other languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili. The “New Seed” declares an identical commitment to actively defend the envi­ron­ment, especially in the wake of the failure of powerful world leaders to “seal the deal” at the Copenhagen summit last December on effectively addressing the global climate change crisis.
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. The Eighth WED-Phils. Annual Assembly was chaired by Reyes, also secretary-general, WED-Phils. Read at the start of the assembly were keynote messages, namely the WED-2010 message of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about global biodiversity being “in peril,” and of the WED-Phils. message seeking the “broad­ening of our very narrow minds.”
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Reference:


Ed Aurelio C. Reyes
Secretary-General, WED-Phils.